Algeria rebels kill eight soldiers

Rebels killed eight Algerian soldiers in two separate attacks on Sunday, days after seven people died in roadside bombs, report said.

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16 Şubat 2009 Pazartesi 13:54

Rebels killed eight Algerian soldiers in two separate attacks on Sunday, days after seven people died in roadside bombs, an Algerian newspaper reported on Monday.

Rebels detonated a bomb as a military truck passed through Stah Aftis village near the border town of Tebessa, 700 km (435 miles) east of Algiers, killing five soldiers and wounding four, daily El Khabar quoted an unnamed local source as saying.

Three soldiers were also shot dead by rebels at an impromptu checkpoint in Bordj Menail in Boumerdes region just east of the capital, an Al Qaeda stronghold, the paper said.

The off-duty soldiers were in civilian clothing and riding a bus when it was stopped by Islamist rebels disguised as soldiers, said El Khabar. The rebels ordered everyone off the bus for what they said was a routine check.

When one of the soldiers told them "we are your colleagues", the militants shot them dead on the spot, the Arabic language daily cited an unnamed source as saying.

Al Qaeda's north African wing, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has claimed responsibility for a string of bombings and attacks in the OPEC member country in recent years.

The group is what remains of a much bigger insurgency that rocked Algeria in the 1990s and killed an estimated 150,000 people. The violence has largely subsided after the government offered successive amnesties to encourage rebels to disarm.

Bouteflika told a rally in Algiers on Thursday that the door was still open for rebels who lay down their arms and take advantage of the amnesty offer.